Live Action 'Cowboy Bebop' TV Series In Development

3..2..1, Let's Jam.. again? Shinichiro Watanabe's 1998 classic Cowboy Bebop is widely considered to be one of the best anime series of all time- at least by fans in the west. That explains why Hollywood studios have been trying to get a live-action movie outing of the ground for years, with Keanu Reeves attached as the lead for some time. That project never got off the starting blocks, but now it seems that somebody else is trying to make it happen.. but this time on the small screen.

Cowboy Bebop follows the adventures of a bounty hunter ("cowboy") named Spike Spiegel on a future colonised Mars, alongside his partners Jet Black and Faye Valentine on the spaceship Bebop. It's not the plot that makes it special, however, but the execution. The anime boasts a unique sense of retro cool that combines influences from film noir, kung-fu movies, westerns, blaxploitation and more all set to an amazing soundtrack from the incomparable Yoko Kanno. It's a very singular thing and something that will be hard to recapture.

It seems they're going to try though: the project is in development at Tomorrow Studios, a collaboration between ITV Studios and Marty Adelstein. The script is being written by Marvel veteran Chris Yost. Original producers Sunrise are also involved as executive producers.

The project is early in development, so it remains to be seen if it will ever see the light of day, let alone be any good. This does have some advantages over certain other recent Hollywood adaptations in that this isn't set in Japan, but in a futuristic, multicultural sci-fi setting. Television also doesn't seem to have the same obsession with "names" that Hollywood does, so it's much easier to imagine them being bolder in their casting choices. Until we hear more though, we'll keep an open mind.

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